It’s that time of the year

wonderful smells from the kitchen!

Starting in on the Christmas Cookies!

Tried the Bourbon Balls for the first time yesterday — on request, I might add. Was worried starting with ‘Nilla Wafers [*yiich*] but they seem to have turned out pretty good. Anyone have another variation I might try?

Also tried a little thing described as the real “Sugarplums” which is nuts and dried fruit chopped very finely and stuck together with some OJ or some Grand Marnier. meh… maybe they’ll get better as they age. I *could* make a batch with just cherries and pecans, which I think would be better than the mix of several fruits…

I tried Rugelach. Yowzah! I thought they needed some tweaking, but they disappeared like the wind. So I think I’ll give them some more work!

Then on to the variations of the classic chocolate chip dough recipe; with chocolate chips, and with pecans, and with cherries and with any and all combinations of the above. Also gonna try a variation with pecans and candied ginger.

Also gonna make Dad’s favorites: pecan crescents. Recipe from his Mom.

But you need to get a fancy schmanzy Pizzelle maker for your birthday :)

mech

Posted December 19, 2012 at 9:52 am |

mMmmmmm, can you text me a couple?

(I don’t have a fax machine)

DougM (Progophobe)

Posted December 19, 2012 at 11:18 am |

Chewy chocolate-chip cookies with red & green MMs.
It’s the only time that classic C4s should be tampered with.
[crosses arms petulantly]

geezerette

Posted December 19, 2012 at 11:52 am |

I’m at the lots a usta’s stage in life. We count on the generosity of the doers now. Claire you mentioned pecan crescents– out of all you’ve mentioned they are my favorite.

Claire

Posted December 19, 2012 at 11:54 am |

Oh. I never mess with C4s!

But the batter is so good I use it for other good cookies…

DougM (Progophobe)

Posted December 19, 2012 at 12:31 pm |

^ Yeah, I guess you could cook some of the dough, too.
(Which is why I don’t buy C3 dough in the store. It never makes it home.)

OTA Mom

Posted December 19, 2012 at 12:33 pm |

Starbucks imitation “cranberry bliss” bars (recipe by Mr. Food)–huge hit at yesterday’s office party. Also popular were the citrus bars (recipe by Kayotic Kitchen, only next time I will increase the amount of custard x1.5 and also experiment with grapefruit), but the “Muddy River Mocha” bars (recipe by Taste of America) as well as the Pioneer Woman’s blueberry lemon sweet rolls (her recipes are SO overhyped) were colossal failures (marshmallow ran all over creation and way too much topping on the former, a soggy mess on the latter)–and I’m not gonna take all the credit. Working on the line-up for the next party on Thursday. :)

My elder daughter, a 49-yr-old bipolar flibbertigibbet, and her sister, an asthmatic 48-yr-old pretend drill instructor, made some cookies one year that shoulda been enshrined in the Paula Dean Hall of Fame.

One was a choc-chip dough but with strips of homemade fudge instead of the drops. The counterpart to that was the same dough, but two layers sandwiching divinity.

The other cookie was some kind of layer deal — 7, I think — with fudge, hickory nuts, marshmallow, and some kind of jellied green stuff as the fillers.

Never did bother to ask the recipe or procedure. I was told some kind of Spanish name, which I can’t remember. They make somethin different each time they come here on the Christmas break, usually unusual brownies and experimental fudge.

My mother was an absolutely terrible cook, and when I first met my wife it was clear that she believed stoves came with only two settings: OFF and BLAST. I was much relieved to get Navy cooking for those few years while she went through her OJT period. My stuff was MUCH preferred to what she made, especially my pot roasts and Sunday morning breakfasts.

Over the years she became one of perhaps the 10 best cooks on 2 continents and the Hawaiian archipelago. My elder daughter seems to have inherited from my wife’s side of the relationship whereas my other girl got her paternal grandmother’s skill set.

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